Thanks for joining us for another Author Spotlight, you can read the first one here. This time around, we have Ellie Jay.
Over to Ellie Jay…
Well, hey there! My (author) name is Ellie Jay, and I labour under the unfortunate delusions that I’m funny. I write multi-genre fiction, anything and everything – So long as I can fill it full of sarcastic humour! My current works are crime/thriller stories set in Russia. They follow – and lightly mock – two warring families. One are a sinister mafia group with unimaginable secrets, and the other are a family of law enforcers who became entangled in this web of crime.
Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Pretty much. I was writing ‘books’, complete with hand-drawn covers and carefully stapled together when I was about 8 or 9 years old. They were completely terrible fanfictions, but they sparked my love of writing and for that, I’ll always treasure them.
Can you remember the first time you started writing?
Not really. Like I said, I remember some of my early works, but I’m sure they weren’t my first attempts.
How do you come up with the ideas for your book(s)?
I have no idea. My mind is a mysterious and disturbing place. Ideas pop out from around corners, shouting ‘boo!’. Then I write them.
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
At the moment, I have two. I’m hoping they’ll both be released this year though! One is a compilation of my whole series in one book, and the other is something completely new, in the sci-fi realm!
How do you select the names of your characters?
After seeing far too many characters with the same four or five names, I decided I’d try and make the names I used in my writing as unique as possible. For my sci-fi characters, I just throw together some letters in a semi-pronounceable format. For my characters in real world settings, I try to pick from cultures you don’t see a lot of in mainstream media. For example, all the names in my thrillers are Russian. When was the last time you heard of a fictional heroine called Nadezhda?
How long on average does it take you to write a book?
It varies way too much to choose an average or give a statistic. I once wrote two full first drafts in 4 months. But my latest book has taken me approximately 18 months to work on. So far.
What advice would you give to new writers?
Keep writing. Whatever you want to write. Even if it’s ‘cringey’ fanfiction or if people call it ‘trash’. Not giving up on the absolute rubbish I wrote when I was a kid made me a better writer. The more you write, the better you get, so long as you’re writing stuff you care about.
What are your favourite books?
If I were to list all of them, it would take years. But for traditionally published books, I love anything by Terry Pratchett, the Vera books by Ann Cleeves, and the Star Wars novelisations. For some shout-outs to my fellow Indies, I recently finished a book called Hydra’s Wake by Daniel Jones, which I loved. Another all-time indie favourite was God of Nothing by Shane Scott.
All of Ellie Jay’s links are -> https://elliejaywrites.carrd.co/
Thanks so much to Ellie Jay for this!